American Journal of Emergency Medicine
Volume 26, Issue 5 , Pages 537-544, June 2008

Alcohol misuse and report of recent depressive symptoms among ED patients☆

  • Shahrzad Bazargan-Hejazi, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychiatry, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
    • David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Department of Psychiatry, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Los Angeles, CA 90059.
    • ,
  • Mohsen Bazargan, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychiatry, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
    • Research Centers in Minority Institutions, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
    • ,
  • Tommie Gaines, MS

      Affiliations

    • Department of Biostatistics, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
    • ,
  • Michael Jemanez, MD

      Affiliations

    • School of Medicine, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Los Angeles, CA 90095. USA

Received 1 July 2007; received in revised form 16 August 2007; accepted 18 August 2007.

Abstract 

Objective

This study examined the magnitude of association between alcohol misuse and recent depressive symptoms.

Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional study of 412 randomly selected patients at least 18 years old and seeking emergency department (ED) care.

Results

Of the patients, 51.0% reported depressive symptoms. At-risk drinking was reported by 26.0%, and 28.2% scored positive on the Rapid Alcohol Problems Screen 4. Alcohol abuse and binge drinking were reported by 25.1% and 28%, respectively, of the patients. According to our results, at-risk drinking (odds ratio [OR] = 2.49, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.47-4.20, P ≤ .001), problem drinking (OR = 2.11, 95% CI = 1.27-3.51, P ≤ .004), drinking abuse (OR = 2.58, 95% CI = 1.51-4.40, P < .001), and binge drinking (OR = 1.89, 95% CI = 1.13-3.15, P < .001) were all related to the manifestation of depressive symptoms.

Conclusions

The findings of this study yield information that could be used by ED health care practitioners and health educators to educate ED patients at risk for alcohol misuse and depression.

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☆ Data collection was funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (U24AA11899-5). Analysis and manuscript development were supported by the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality (1RZ4-HS014022-01A1), National Center for Research Resources (G12-RR03026), and the National Center on Minority Health and Disparities (P20MD000148).

PII: S0735-6757(07)00539-6

doi:10.1016/j.ajem.2007.08.019

American Journal of Emergency Medicine
Volume 26, Issue 5 , Pages 537-544, June 2008

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